Thoughts on U of M Hockey
I went to both games over the weekend and the Wolverines pulled out the sweep. I thought they looked more dominant against Wisconsin than they did against Minnesota, although the huge amount of specialty teams play due to a plethora of slashing penalties might have been the reason why the score was closer.
Michigan was up 3-0 until very late against the Badgers. Wisconsin scored a power play goal with 2:50 left and then got within one goal of Michigan just 18 seconds later to make the game appear much closer than it was. The Wolverines emphatically closed the door when a Badger player tried to gain the offensive zone at near full speed and just got lit up by a Michigan player. He was down on the ice for a good minute or so and had to be helped off the ice. That all but ended any chance the Badgers had to tie the game. It was a great open-ice hit.
I really like the top line of Chad Kolarik, Kevin Porter and Max Pacioretty. Kolarik was a scoring machine, tallying 3 goals and 3 assists over both games. Max looks like he has the makings of a college power forward and scored a goal in close on Friday night in a spot where many d-men are going to have trouble moving him. He should score a lot of goals from within 5 feet of the net this year. He’s a pretty good skater too as he was out there on the PK.
Brendan Smith looked decent as he tallied an assist on Wisconsin’s opening goal. He’s a good skater and looked pretty good on the left point on the Badgers’ second power play unit. When that Wisconsin player got lit up near the end of the game he was the only Badger to respond as he decked a Michigan player in response. He fell once while playing the puck behind the Badger net and my cousin blurted out “the Red Wings #1 draft pick!”. It was pretty funny.
Minnesota seemed to be better about playing the body than Wisconsin did but they didn’t seem to have much speed amonst their forwards. They had a couple chances to generate an odd man rush but the Wolverines always seemed to get into the play and break up any advantage the Gophers might have had. Jeff Frazee also had a brutal game. He had trouble handling the puck behind his own net on Kevin Porter’s short-handed goal.
Billy Sauer wasn’t given a really heavy workload but he seemed to play well in net for the Wolverines. Both of my cousins said Josh Blackburn is now on the staff and has played a big role in getting Sauer to prepare himself game in and game out and so far it appears to be working. Here’s the link to the Daily article they mentioned. He’s coming out of the crease to cut down on angles and I also think a big part of Sauer’s success is that the team is making a better effort to play two-way hockey in front of him and limit good scoring chances. The team is pretty young, but many of the players seem to have a good handle and awareness of their defensive responsibilities which is a great sign.
I think we’ll find out a lot more about this team in matchups against Miami, MSU and Notre Dame.
Billy Sauer Chad Kolarick Kevin Porter Max Pacioretty Michigan Hockey Minnesota WisconsinNo Comments
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